Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think busts today’s common myths about science and religion. It reveals several interesting and perhaps surprising realities. The book shows that ...
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Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think busts today’s common myths about science and religion. It reveals several interesting and perhaps surprising realities. The book shows that religious people love much of science. They perceive conflicts only with the forms of science that seem to have implications for God’s role in the world and the value and sacredness of humans. Yet, they are often suspicious of scientists, thinking that scientists generally do not like religious people. Many religious people claim to be young-earth creationists, but they are actually much more open to evolution than this initial label might suggest. Not all religious people deny that the climate is changing, and that it is changing because of humans. And political views more than religious views are really the best predictor of what Americans think about climate change. Further, religious people want to support the environment, as long as love for the environment does not replace love of people. Finally, religious people are supportive of technological advancements, including typically controversial ideas like reproductive genetic technologies and human embryonic stem-cell research, but they want scientists to reflect more on the moral implications of their work. The book ends with practical suggestions and ideas for collaboration among all individuals and communities.Less

Religion vs. Science : What Religious People Really Think

Elaine Howard EcklundChristopher P. Scheitle

Published in print: 2018-01-25

Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think busts today’s common myths about science and religion. It reveals several interesting and perhaps surprising realities. The book shows that religious people love much of science. They perceive conflicts only with the forms of science that seem to have implications for God’s role in the world and the value and sacredness of humans. Yet, they are often suspicious of scientists, thinking that scientists generally do not like religious people. Many religious people claim to be young-earth creationists, but they are actually much more open to evolution than this initial label might suggest. Not all religious people deny that the climate is changing, and that it is changing because of humans. And political views more than religious views are really the best predictor of what Americans think about climate change. Further, religious people want to support the environment, as long as love for the environment does not replace love of people. Finally, religious people are supportive of technological advancements, including typically controversial ideas like reproductive genetic technologies and human embryonic stem-cell research, but they want scientists to reflect more on the moral implications of their work. The book ends with practical suggestions and ideas for collaboration among all individuals and communities.

The struggle to overcome Jim Crow was part of a larger movement for equal rights in antebellum New England. Using sit-ins, boycotts, petition drives, and other initiatives, African American New ...
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The struggle to overcome Jim Crow was part of a larger movement for equal rights in antebellum New England. Using sit-ins, boycotts, petition drives, and other initiatives, African American New Englanders and their white allies attempted to desegregate schools, transportation, neighborhoods, churches, and cultural venues. They worked to secure the franchise, improve educational opportunities, enlarge employment prospects, remove prohibitions against mixed marriages, and protect fugitive slaves from recapture. Above all they sought to be respected and treated as equals in a reputedly democratic society. Despite widespread racism, by the advent of the Civil War, African American men could vote and hold office in every New England state but Connecticut. Schools, except in the largest cities of Connecticut and Rhode Island, were integrated; railroads, stagecoaches, hotels, and cultural venues (with occasional aberrations) were free from discrimination; people of African descent and of European descent could marry one another and live peaceably; and fugitive slaves were safer in New England than in any other section of the United States. Most African Americans in New England, nonetheless, were mired in poverty, and that is the barrier that prevented full equality, then and now.Less

Jim Crow North : The Struggle for Equality in Antebellum New England

Richard Archer

Published in print: 2017-12-07

The struggle to overcome Jim Crow was part of a larger movement for equal rights in antebellum New England. Using sit-ins, boycotts, petition drives, and other initiatives, African American New Englanders and their white allies attempted to desegregate schools, transportation, neighborhoods, churches, and cultural venues. They worked to secure the franchise, improve educational opportunities, enlarge employment prospects, remove prohibitions against mixed marriages, and protect fugitive slaves from recapture. Above all they sought to be respected and treated as equals in a reputedly democratic society. Despite widespread racism, by the advent of the Civil War, African American men could vote and hold office in every New England state but Connecticut. Schools, except in the largest cities of Connecticut and Rhode Island, were integrated; railroads, stagecoaches, hotels, and cultural venues (with occasional aberrations) were free from discrimination; people of African descent and of European descent could marry one another and live peaceably; and fugitive slaves were safer in New England than in any other section of the United States. Most African Americans in New England, nonetheless, were mired in poverty, and that is the barrier that prevented full equality, then and now.

Elaine de Kooning (1918–1989) was a noted art critic and artist, and a prime mover in the New York art world. She was a vivacious social catalyst. Her sparkling wit enlivened meetings of the Club, ...
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Elaine de Kooning (1918–1989) was a noted art critic and artist, and a prime mover in the New York art world. She was a vivacious social catalyst. Her sparkling wit enlivened meetings of the Club, nights at the Cedar Tavern, and chance conversations on the street. Her droll sense of humor, generosity of spirit, and freewheeling spending were as legendary as her ever-present cigarette. An incisive writer, she pinpointed the essence of artists as diverse as Franz Kline and August Renoir, and deftly refuted pompous critical rhetoric. As a painter, she melded Abstract Expressionism with her lifelong interest in bodily movement to capture the characteristic postures of portrait sitters ranging from artist and writer friends to President John F. Kennedy. Driven to focus on a single theme for years at a stretch, she produced multiple paintings reflecting her fascination with people and animals in motion; her subjects include bullfighting, basketball, Paleolithic cave paintings, and a multi-figure sculpture in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. Married to Willem de Kooning from 1943 until her death, she credited him as her greatest influence. Although the couple separated in 1957, after episodes of unfaithfulness on both sides, nearly two decades later she bought a house near his to rescue him from severe alcoholism. Rather than being overshadowed by his fame, she said, she worked “in his light.”Less

A Generous Vision : The Creative Life of Elaine de Kooning

Cathy Curtis

Published in print: 2017-12-07

Elaine de Kooning (1918–1989) was a noted art critic and artist, and a prime mover in the New York art world. She was a vivacious social catalyst. Her sparkling wit enlivened meetings of the Club, nights at the Cedar Tavern, and chance conversations on the street. Her droll sense of humor, generosity of spirit, and freewheeling spending were as legendary as her ever-present cigarette. An incisive writer, she pinpointed the essence of artists as diverse as Franz Kline and August Renoir, and deftly refuted pompous critical rhetoric. As a painter, she melded Abstract Expressionism with her lifelong interest in bodily movement to capture the characteristic postures of portrait sitters ranging from artist and writer friends to President John F. Kennedy. Driven to focus on a single theme for years at a stretch, she produced multiple paintings reflecting her fascination with people and animals in motion; her subjects include bullfighting, basketball, Paleolithic cave paintings, and a multi-figure sculpture in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. Married to Willem de Kooning from 1943 until her death, she credited him as her greatest influence. Although the couple separated in 1957, after episodes of unfaithfulness on both sides, nearly two decades later she bought a house near his to rescue him from severe alcoholism. Rather than being overshadowed by his fame, she said, she worked “in his light.”

Andrew Preston and Doug Rossinow (eds)

History, American History: 20th Century, American History: 19th Century

The essays in Outside In show how Americans lived within transnational circuits featuring impacts and influences running in multiple directions. While the field of international history generally ...
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The essays in Outside In show how Americans lived within transnational circuits featuring impacts and influences running in multiple directions. While the field of international history generally emphasizes the impact of the United States on the rest of the world during the period of US ascendancy—and while some scholars today stress how America has been shaped by external forces—the work assembled here rises above such disputes by showing the immense complexity of transnational currents that both shaped the United States and of which the United States was an inextricably, often central part. Here, the agents of globalization appear very concrete, not at all the disembodied, irresistible forces of some conventional narratives. Outside In also transcends the divide between work focusing on the international system of nation-states and transnational history that treats nonstate actors exclusively. The authors range very widely in topic—from international economic management and international statecraft to missionary activity and global antiwar dissent, from intellectuals discussing women’s rights and working for a minimum wage across borders to right-wing counterinsurgency operatives, from oil tycoons and worldwide evangelists to neoliberal ideologues and officeholders. Religion, diplomacy, economics, and warfare all have their places here, as do people ranging across the entire political spectrum, from left to right. These essays point to the best and most current research directions in the transnationalization of US history.Less

Outside In : The Transnational Circuitry of US History

Published in print: 2017-12-01

The essays in Outside In show how Americans lived within transnational circuits featuring impacts and influences running in multiple directions. While the field of international history generally emphasizes the impact of the United States on the rest of the world during the period of US ascendancy—and while some scholars today stress how America has been shaped by external forces—the work assembled here rises above such disputes by showing the immense complexity of transnational currents that both shaped the United States and of which the United States was an inextricably, often central part. Here, the agents of globalization appear very concrete, not at all the disembodied, irresistible forces of some conventional narratives. Outside In also transcends the divide between work focusing on the international system of nation-states and transnational history that treats nonstate actors exclusively. The authors range very widely in topic—from international economic management and international statecraft to missionary activity and global antiwar dissent, from intellectuals discussing women’s rights and working for a minimum wage across borders to right-wing counterinsurgency operatives, from oil tycoons and worldwide evangelists to neoliberal ideologues and officeholders. Religion, diplomacy, economics, and warfare all have their places here, as do people ranging across the entire political spectrum, from left to right. These essays point to the best and most current research directions in the transnationalization of US history.

Untimely Democracy tells the surprising story of how American authors and activists defined the path of racial progress after the abolition of slavery. Conventional narratives of democracy stretching ...
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Untimely Democracy tells the surprising story of how American authors and activists defined the path of racial progress after the abolition of slavery. Conventional narratives of democracy stretching from Thomas Jefferson’s America to the present day posit a purposeful break between past and present as the key to the viability of this political form—the only way to ensure its continual development. But for Pauline E. Hopkins, Frederick Douglass, Stephen Crane, W. E. B. Du Bois, Charles W. Chesnutt, Sutton E. Griggs, Callie House, and the other figures examined in this book, the campaign to secure liberty and equality for all citizens proceeds most potently when it refuses the precepts of progressive time. Placing these authors’ post–Civil War writings into dialogue with debates about racial optimism and pessimism, tracts on progress, and accounts of ex-slave pension activism, and extending their insights into our contemporary moment, the book recovers late nineteenth-century literature as a vibrant site for doing political theory. Untimely Democracy ultimately shows how one of the bleakest periods in American racial history provided fertile terrain for a radical reconstruction of some of the foundational elements of the nation’s political system. Offering resources for moments when the march of progress seems to slow, stutter, and even cease, the book invites readers to reconsider just what democracy can make possible.Less

Untimely Democracy : The Politics of Progress After Slavery

Gregory Laski

Published in print: 2017-11-30

Untimely Democracy tells the surprising story of how American authors and activists defined the path of racial progress after the abolition of slavery. Conventional narratives of democracy stretching from Thomas Jefferson’s America to the present day posit a purposeful break between past and present as the key to the viability of this political form—the only way to ensure its continual development. But for Pauline E. Hopkins, Frederick Douglass, Stephen Crane, W. E. B. Du Bois, Charles W. Chesnutt, Sutton E. Griggs, Callie House, and the other figures examined in this book, the campaign to secure liberty and equality for all citizens proceeds most potently when it refuses the precepts of progressive time. Placing these authors’ post–Civil War writings into dialogue with debates about racial optimism and pessimism, tracts on progress, and accounts of ex-slave pension activism, and extending their insights into our contemporary moment, the book recovers late nineteenth-century literature as a vibrant site for doing political theory. Untimely Democracy ultimately shows how one of the bleakest periods in American racial history provided fertile terrain for a radical reconstruction of some of the foundational elements of the nation’s political system. Offering resources for moments when the march of progress seems to slow, stutter, and even cease, the book invites readers to reconsider just what democracy can make possible.

When the state of Israel was established in 1948, it was immediately thrust into war, and rabbis in the religious Zionist community were challenged with constructing a body of Jewish law to deal with ...
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When the state of Israel was established in 1948, it was immediately thrust into war, and rabbis in the religious Zionist community were challenged with constructing a body of Jewish law to deal with this turn of events. Laws had to be “constructed” here because Jewish law had developed mostly during prior centuries when Jews had no state or army, and therefore it contained little material on war. The rabbis in the religious Zionist camp responded to this challenge by creating a substantial corpus of laws on war, and they did so with remarkable ingenuity and creativity. The work of these rabbis represents a fascinating chapter in the history of Jewish law and ethics, but it has attracted relatively little attention from academic scholars. The purpose of the present book is therefore to bring some of their work to light. It examines how five of the leading rabbis in the religious Zionist community dealt with key moral issues in the waging of war. Chapters are devoted to R. Abraham Isaac Kook, R. Isaac Halevi Herzog, R. Eliezer Waldenberg, R. Sha’ul Yisraeli, and R. Shlomo Goren. The moral issues examined include the question of who is a legitimate authority for initiating a war, why Jews in a modern Jewish state can be drafted to fight on its behalf, and whether the killing of enemy civilians is justified. Other issues examined include how the laws of war as formulated by religious Zionist rabbis compares to those of international law.Less

Religious Zionism, Jewish Law, and the Morality of War : How Five Rabbis Confronted One of Modern Judaism's Greatest Challenges

Robert Eisen

Published in print: 2017-11-30

When the state of Israel was established in 1948, it was immediately thrust into war, and rabbis in the religious Zionist community were challenged with constructing a body of Jewish law to deal with this turn of events. Laws had to be “constructed” here because Jewish law had developed mostly during prior centuries when Jews had no state or army, and therefore it contained little material on war. The rabbis in the religious Zionist camp responded to this challenge by creating a substantial corpus of laws on war, and they did so with remarkable ingenuity and creativity. The work of these rabbis represents a fascinating chapter in the history of Jewish law and ethics, but it has attracted relatively little attention from academic scholars. The purpose of the present book is therefore to bring some of their work to light. It examines how five of the leading rabbis in the religious Zionist community dealt with key moral issues in the waging of war. Chapters are devoted to R. Abraham Isaac Kook, R. Isaac Halevi Herzog, R. Eliezer Waldenberg, R. Sha’ul Yisraeli, and R. Shlomo Goren. The moral issues examined include the question of who is a legitimate authority for initiating a war, why Jews in a modern Jewish state can be drafted to fight on its behalf, and whether the killing of enemy civilians is justified. Other issues examined include how the laws of war as formulated by religious Zionist rabbis compares to those of international law.

Few authors of the Victorian period were as immersed in classical learning as Oscar Wilde. He studied Classics at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford, winning academic prizes and distinctions at both ...
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Few authors of the Victorian period were as immersed in classical learning as Oscar Wilde. He studied Classics at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford, winning academic prizes and distinctions at both institutions. His undergraduate notebooks as well as his essays and articles on ancient topics reveal a mind engrossed in problems in classical scholarship and fascinated by the relationship between ancient and modern thought. His first publications were English translations of classical texts. Even after he had ‘left Parnassus for Piccadilly’, antiquity continued to provide Wilde with a critical vocabulary in which he could express himself and his aestheticism, an intellectual framework for understanding the world around him, and a compelling set of narratives to fire his artist’s imagination. Wilde’s debt to Greece and Rome is evident throughout his writings, from the sparkling wit of Society plays like The Importance of Being Earnest to the extraordinary meditation on suffering that is De Profundis. This book unites scholars in Classics and ancient history, English, theatre and performance studies, and the history of ideas to investigate the varied and profound impact that Graeco-Roman antiquity had on Wilde’s life and work. This wide-ranging collection covers all the major genres of Wilde’s literary output; it includes new perspectives on his most celebrated and canonical texts and close analyses of unpublished material. It also encompasses the main aspects of the ancient world that Wilde engaged with, its literature, history, and philosophy.Less

Oscar Wilde and Classical Antiquity

Published in print: 2017-11-30

Few authors of the Victorian period were as immersed in classical learning as Oscar Wilde. He studied Classics at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford, winning academic prizes and distinctions at both institutions. His undergraduate notebooks as well as his essays and articles on ancient topics reveal a mind engrossed in problems in classical scholarship and fascinated by the relationship between ancient and modern thought. His first publications were English translations of classical texts. Even after he had ‘left Parnassus for Piccadilly’, antiquity continued to provide Wilde with a critical vocabulary in which he could express himself and his aestheticism, an intellectual framework for understanding the world around him, and a compelling set of narratives to fire his artist’s imagination. Wilde’s debt to Greece and Rome is evident throughout his writings, from the sparkling wit of Society plays like The Importance of Being Earnest to the extraordinary meditation on suffering that is De Profundis. This book unites scholars in Classics and ancient history, English, theatre and performance studies, and the history of ideas to investigate the varied and profound impact that Graeco-Roman antiquity had on Wilde’s life and work. This wide-ranging collection covers all the major genres of Wilde’s literary output; it includes new perspectives on his most celebrated and canonical texts and close analyses of unpublished material. It also encompasses the main aspects of the ancient world that Wilde engaged with, its literature, history, and philosophy.

This book explores the hidden history of a family in slavery and freedom in the Indian Ocean empires of France and Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A tale of legal intrigue, ...
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This book explores the hidden history of a family in slavery and freedom in the Indian Ocean empires of France and Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A tale of legal intrigue, this biography uncovers the family lives of slaves and free people in two islands, Réunion (Isle Bourbon) and Mauritius (Isle de France). Madeleine, a girl from Bengal, entered the service of a French mistress in Chandernagor in the 1750s and accompanied her to France, where she became the slave of a planter couple who brought her to Isle Bourbon. Madeleine’s three children — Maurice, Constance, and Furcy — survived monsoons, famine, and the French Revolution. At the heart of the story is Furcy’s legal struggle to free himself from his putative master, Joseph Lory, a case that was ultimately decided by the Royale Court (Cour royale) of Paris in 1843. A meticulous work of archival detective work, Madeleine’s Children investigates the cunning, clandestine, and brutal strategies that masters devised to keep slaves under their control while painting a vivid picture of the unique and evolving meanings of slavery and freedom in the Indian Ocean world.Less

Madeleine's Children : Family, Freedom, Secrets, and Lies in France's Indian Ocean Colonies

Sue Peabody

Published in print: 2017-11-30

This book explores the hidden history of a family in slavery and freedom in the Indian Ocean empires of France and Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A tale of legal intrigue, this biography uncovers the family lives of slaves and free people in two islands, Réunion (Isle Bourbon) and Mauritius (Isle de France). Madeleine, a girl from Bengal, entered the service of a French mistress in Chandernagor in the 1750s and accompanied her to France, where she became the slave of a planter couple who brought her to Isle Bourbon. Madeleine’s three children — Maurice, Constance, and Furcy — survived monsoons, famine, and the French Revolution. At the heart of the story is Furcy’s legal struggle to free himself from his putative master, Joseph Lory, a case that was ultimately decided by the Royale Court (Cour royale) of Paris in 1843. A meticulous work of archival detective work, Madeleine’s Children investigates the cunning, clandestine, and brutal strategies that masters devised to keep slaves under their control while painting a vivid picture of the unique and evolving meanings of slavery and freedom in the Indian Ocean world.

This work provides a survey and critical investigation of the remarkable century from 1225 to 1325, during which the transformation of the Chinese Chan school into the Japanese Zen sect was ...
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This work provides a survey and critical investigation of the remarkable century from 1225 to 1325, during which the transformation of the Chinese Chan school into the Japanese Zen sect was successfully completed. The cycle of transfer began with a handful of Japanese pilgrims traveling to China, including Eisai, Dōgen, and Enni, in order to discover authentic Buddhism. They quickly learned that Chan, with the strong support of the secular elite, was well organized in terms of the intricate teaching techniques of various temple lineages. After receiving Dharma transmission through face-to-face meetings with prominent Chinese teachers, the Japanese monks returned with many spiritual resources. However, foreign rituals and customs met with resistance, so by the end of the thirteenth century it was difficult to imagine the success Zen would soon achieve. Following the arrival of a series of émigré monks, who gained the strong support of the shoguns for their continental teachings, Zen became the mainstream religious tradition in Japan. The transmission culminated in the 1320s when prominent leaders Daitō and Musō learned enough Chinese to overcome challenges from other sects with their Zen methods. The book examines the transcultural conundrum: how did Zen, which started half a millennium earlier as a mystical utopian cult primarily for reclusive monks who withdrew from society, gain a broad following among influential lay followers in both countries? It answers this question by developing a focus on the main mythical elements that contributed to the overall effectiveness of this transition, especially the Legend of Living Buddhas.Less

From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen : A Remarkable Century of Transmission and Transformation

Steven Heine

Published in print: 2017-11-30

This work provides a survey and critical investigation of the remarkable century from 1225 to 1325, during which the transformation of the Chinese Chan school into the Japanese Zen sect was successfully completed. The cycle of transfer began with a handful of Japanese pilgrims traveling to China, including Eisai, Dōgen, and Enni, in order to discover authentic Buddhism. They quickly learned that Chan, with the strong support of the secular elite, was well organized in terms of the intricate teaching techniques of various temple lineages. After receiving Dharma transmission through face-to-face meetings with prominent Chinese teachers, the Japanese monks returned with many spiritual resources. However, foreign rituals and customs met with resistance, so by the end of the thirteenth century it was difficult to imagine the success Zen would soon achieve. Following the arrival of a series of émigré monks, who gained the strong support of the shoguns for their continental teachings, Zen became the mainstream religious tradition in Japan. The transmission culminated in the 1320s when prominent leaders Daitō and Musō learned enough Chinese to overcome challenges from other sects with their Zen methods. The book examines the transcultural conundrum: how did Zen, which started half a millennium earlier as a mystical utopian cult primarily for reclusive monks who withdrew from society, gain a broad following among influential lay followers in both countries? It answers this question by developing a focus on the main mythical elements that contributed to the overall effectiveness of this transition, especially the Legend of Living Buddhas.

This collection extends and further defends the “reasons conception” of critical thinking that Harvey Siegel has articulated and defended over the last three-plus decades. This conception analyzes ...
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This collection extends and further defends the “reasons conception” of critical thinking that Harvey Siegel has articulated and defended over the last three-plus decades. This conception analyzes and emphasizes both the epistemic quality of candidate beliefs, and the dispositions and character traits that constitute the “critical spirit”, that are central to a proper account of critical thinking; argues that epistemic quality must be understood ultimately in terms of epistemic rationality; defends a conception of rationality that involves both rules and judgment; and argues that critical thinking has normative value over and above its instrumental tie to truth. Siegel also argues, contrary to currently popular multiculturalist thought, for both transcultural and universal philosophical ideals, including those of multiculturalism and critical thinking themselves. Over seventeen chapters, Siegel makes the case for regarding critical thinking, or the cultivation of rationality, as a preeminent educational ideal, and the fostering of it as a fundamental educational aim. A wide range of alternative views are critically examined. Important related topics, including indoctrination, moral education, open-mindedness, testimony, epistemological diversity, and cultural difference are treated. The result is a systematic account and defense of critical thinking, an educational ideal widely proclaimed but seldom submitted to critical scrutiny itself.Less

Harvey Siegel

Published in print: 2017-11-30

This collection extends and further defends the “reasons conception” of critical thinking that Harvey Siegel has articulated and defended over the last three-plus decades. This conception analyzes and emphasizes both the epistemic quality of candidate beliefs, and the dispositions and character traits that constitute the “critical spirit”, that are central to a proper account of critical thinking; argues that epistemic quality must be understood ultimately in terms of epistemic rationality; defends a conception of rationality that involves both rules and judgment; and argues that critical thinking has normative value over and above its instrumental tie to truth. Siegel also argues, contrary to currently popular multiculturalist thought, for both transcultural and universal philosophical ideals, including those of multiculturalism and critical thinking themselves. Over seventeen chapters, Siegel makes the case for regarding critical thinking, or the cultivation of rationality, as a preeminent educational ideal, and the fostering of it as a fundamental educational aim. A wide range of alternative views are critically examined. Important related topics, including indoctrination, moral education, open-mindedness, testimony, epistemological diversity, and cultural difference are treated. The result is a systematic account and defense of critical thinking, an educational ideal widely proclaimed but seldom submitted to critical scrutiny itself.